WW1 photos

[Andrew Upton]

Stevew:

The picture that gets me from the opening scene of the The Great War series is as the scene pans around from the dead German it comes to someone sitting in a trench, always wonder what he is thinking at that precise moment

I should point out that the picture you are referring to was created by splicing two seperate photographs together - as I recall, the soldier is one of the few survivors from a Pals battalion on 1st July 1916 at the Somme...

[stevew]

Stevew:

The picture that gets me from the opening scene of the The Great War series is as the scene pans around from the dead German it comes to someone sitting in a trench, always wonder what he is thinking at that precise moment

I should point out that the picture you are referring to was created by splicing two seperate photographs together - as I recall, the soldier is one of the few survivors from a Pals battalion on 1st July 1916 at the Somme...

Andrew,

Thanks for that, I had guessed/assumed that it was 2 separate pictures, you don't happen to know if that picture is available from the IWM??

I worded my post wrong - I do give the impression that I think it's one picture........silly me!!!!!

[Guest D729LEE]

one eerie photo

[Landsturm]

Atrocities Portrayed in the British Press

'La Belgique Heroique et Martyre'

Swords into Plowshares - Anti War Books of the 1920s

Photographing the Dead

Images Secretes - A Collection of Censored Photos

Censored Photos in Germany

'der Weltkrieg in seiner rauhen Wirklichkeit' - a Series of Unpublished Photos from the War

Cannon Fodder - an American Journalist Visits Austro-Hungarian Hospitals

Includes illustrations and photographs...

[Garde Grenadier]

The "smiling" soldier - one of the eeriest photos of WWI I know about.

Best wishes

Daniel

Sorry, the picture does not appear - how do I get it into the text?

[Rob Ruggenberg]

Smiling Soldier - I presume you mean this one: 'What Dreams May Come' ?

[Marc Thompson]

It wasn't, it was filmed as a part of the "Battle of the Somme" newsreel film of the First Day on the Battle of the Somme. It was actually filmed in 1916 during the battle, it is a very famous piece of film. As well as it is featured in Martin Middlebrook's "The First Day of the Somme" book and if it was posed, Martin Middlebrook would have stated "As this is a posed photograph..." and so on. I am positive it isn't fake.

Martin Middlebrook did point out (dated November 2002) in the Author's Preface to the Replica Edition of The First Day on the Somme that:

"I should here highlight the only two known minor errors in the 1971 edition; namely Major J.K. Dunlop was in the 53rd, not the 43rd, Machine Gun Company, and the photograph of troops of 29th Division 'advancing into No Man's Land' is very probably an enactment."

[Garde Grenadier]

Smiling Soldier - I presume you mean this one: 'What Dreams May Come' ?

Thanks Rob, yes, that's the one! Ghastly, isn't it?

How does one get the picture into the text? I'm not familiar with these technicalities.

Thanks anyway!

Daniel

[Ribble]

The shot has already been mentioned several times but for me the famous still taken from the Somme film of the Lancs Fusiliers preparing to go into action at Beaumont Hamel was the main reason I ever became interested in the Great War.

It featured in a large cofee table style WW1 book I was given in my early teens some 30 years ago. The still had been blown up to cover the entirety of one page. The haunted look on the lads faces shook me and that feeling about the picture has stayed with me ever since.

The caption claimed that the shot was taken minutes before they went over the top, which of course added to the drama of the still, but I remember reading somewhere a couple of years ago that it was far more likely to have been taken at a practise run a couple of days before 1st July.

Nevertheless, like an earlier poster in this thread, I too have stood in the Sunken Lane where the camerman took that footage all those years ago and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck I can tell you.

[KONDOA]

That soldier pf the Lancs Regwas identified in the 60's by his family. He was Joe Bailey.

Roop

[Guest D729LEE]

This is what went so wrong the last post

[stevew]

That soldier pf the Lancs Regwas identified in the 60's by his family. He was Joe Bailey.

Roop

Roop,

which soldier???

Steve

[Horace Bachelor]

That soldier pf the Lancs Regwas identified in the 60's by his family. He was Joe Bailey.

Roop

Roop,

which soldier???

Steve

I think Roop is referring to the soldier in the opening scenes of The Great War, currently being shown on BBC2 in the early afternoon.

Here's a cutting from the Daily Telegraph from 1964 stating that the soldier had been identified as Pte Joseph Bailey of the York and Lancaster Regt. who was a 1st July casualty.

However I have in my possession a letter from the IWM, who supplied the original photograph to the BBC, disputing this fact. They maintain that the soldier was almost certainly a member of the Royal Irish Rifles, identity unknown.

Cheers

Rich.

[Horace Bachelor]

Whoops, don't know what happened there.

Let's try again.

[KONDOA]

Rich/Steve,

You refer to the correct picture.

Never heard any more since the original claim.

Roop

[stevew]

That is the picture I was referring to. Although nothing eerie, it's the eyes and the expression on his face. Everytime I see it I wonder what he was thinking at that moment and what horrors he has seen, I also wonder whether or not he survived the war.

[Guest D729LEE]

This pic was mentioned earlier, it defines eerie, and reminds me of those awful zombie film made cheaply in the 70's.

[anneg001]

The shot has already been mentioned several times but for me the famous still taken from the Somme film of the Lancs Fusilliers preparing to go into action

is the picture on this forum?

[Muerrisch]

the shell burst in the background which Hurley air-brushed in later.

Air brush!? When?

[Guest D729LEE]

Just trying out my new kit, hope you don't mind Ladies and Gents

Thought this rang a bell.

[Guest D729LEE]

Just trying out my new kit, hope you don't mind Ladies and Gents

Thought this rang a bell.

[Guest D729LEE]

Try again.

[Ribble]

I think Roop is referring to the soldier in the opening scenes of The Great War, currently being shown on BBC2 in the early afternoon.

Here's a cutting from the Daily Telegraph from 1964 stating that the soldier had been identified as Pte Joseph Bailey of the York and Lancaster Regt. who was a 1st July casualty.

However I have in my possession a letter from the IWM, who supplied the original photograph to the BBC, disputing this fact. They maintain that the soldier was almost certainly a member of the Royal Irish Rifles, identity unknown.

The picture in the newspaper clipping is a cropped version of a larger group of men standing/sitting in a communications trench. The full picture is included in my version of 'The First Day of the Somme' and the caption identifies the unit as 'probably 1st Royal Irish Rifles'. Perhaps it was wishful thinking on part of Pte Bailey's family as to my eyes the men don't even look that similar.

[Ribble]

QUOTE 

The shot has already been mentioned several times but for me the famous still taken from the Somme film of the Lancs Fusiliers preparing to go into action 

is the picture on this forum?

Anne001

No-one has posted it in this thread and I don't have a scanner, I'm afraid.

It is very well known so perhaps someone could oblige? The still is from the Somme film and is the one of the 1st Lancs Fusiliers sitting with bayonets fixed in the Sunken Lane in front of Beamont - Hamel waiting to attack at Zero hour (supposedly). It features a boy (he looks about 16) gazing upwards to his right, a very haunting image. The majority of these men would have ended up in the cemetery (Beamont - Hamel) which now lies just the other side of the lane.

I'm looking at the picture now and even after all these years it still effects me.

[anneg001]

I can scan it, if I can find the book at my local library. What is the title author and page?